


Misunderstanding

by Silvestria



Category: Indian Summers (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Ian and Sooni are feminists, Ian and Sooni's Socialist Detective Agency, oblivious babies are oblivious, poor Naseem Ali Khan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-11
Updated: 2016-04-11
Packaged: 2018-06-01 15:30:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6525859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Silvestria/pseuds/Silvestria
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sooni doesn't understand men. Ian doesn't understand himself. Set vaguely after 2x05 but no specific spoilers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Misunderstanding

**Author's Note:**

> More Ian and Sooni fic definitely required.

“What are you laughing at?” asked Sooni eventually, after several minutes of glancing suspiciously at Ian and then away again as they had walked away from Mr. Khan’s workshop.

“I’m not laughing,” he replied, still chuckling.

She made a face, half confused, half amused. “Yes, you are; how can you deny it? Tell me what is so funny!”

He shook his head, bit his lip and tried to stop. 

“Fine,” she said and abruptly stopped walking. “I’ll wait here and walk back on my own. You can go and laugh by yourself like a lunatic.” 

“Sooni, Sooni!” He turned and stared at her, summing her up, his hands on his hips and she stared back, undaunted. Finally, he capitulated. “Alright, I suppose I’m laughing at Naseem Khan.

“That isn’t very nice, Ian. He’s a good man.”

“Oh, I’ll grant you that, but he doesn’t understand you at all.”

“Well?” Sooni interrogated, still standing there in the middle of the street.

Ian started walking again and she fell automatically into line next to him. “For a start, he thinks you’re going to be impressed by his doing the bare minimum. He wants you to congratulate him and tries even harder when you don’t. And he still doesn’t get it right.”

“Why should I congratulate a man for doing what he ought to do? Or are men so feeble minded that they need constant validation for the smallest things?”

Ian grinned as if he almost agreed with her before returning to her first question. “He wants your approval, Sooni. He likes you.”

“I like him too and when he does something worth approving, I will approve! Don’t think I’m going to clap my hands and say, _very well done, Mr. Khan_ for the smallest thing.”

“ _I_ don’t think that, but that’s what I mean when I say he doesn’t understand you. He thinks you will.”

Sooni stopped again. “You say he doesn’t understand me. Now I think that I do not understand him. Or men at all perhaps.”

“I’m a man. You don’t seem to have any problem understanding me.”

“Oh, not at all; your accent is so strange I hardly know what you’re saying half the time!” She turned away with a flounce and walked off, grinning to herself and yet also feeling oddly uncomfortable as if somewhere down the line she had missed something.

“It’s not strange; it’s Scottish!” he cried in outrage, leaping after her.

“That comes to the same thing,” she retorted with playful dignity.

Ian huffed and nudged her with his arm. She glanced up, tried not to smile but could not succeed and met his grin easily. They walked together through the street without talking, until they approached close to Sooni’s house. Then she stopped suddenly and frowned at him.

“You said Mr. Khan liked me and wanted to impress me. I hope you didn’t mean what it sounds like you meant.”

Ian shrugged, looking at her sympathetically. “I could be wrong.” He hesitated, then asked, “Would it be so bad if he did admire you?”

“Better him than what my mother has planned!” she shot back instantly but then she stopped. “I don’t know. I never thought about it.”

“I guess you’re thinking about it now,” Ian commented, tipping his head back to the sky and stretching his back as if he had an itch between his shoulder blades.

“Yes.” She stared at him, feeling somewhat confused. “Oh, why are we talking about this when there are so many more important things to be doing? Mr. Khan shouldn’t be so easily distracted – and I don’t see why you should be so anxious to marry me off to him as if you were Mrs. Coffin up at the Club and I was some young girl fresh off the boat from England!”

Ian smiled at the comparison but uneasily. “I never said I wanted you to marry him. I’d hardly be laughing if I thought he had a serious chance.”

“Well, I don’t know why you brought it up otherwise! I don’t go and see Mr. Khan because I want him to make love to me.”

“Sooni! I didn’t mean-”

“Perhaps I should talk to him. Tell him it’s not going to happen. Or perhaps I can change how I behave to him so that I don’t need to… Men don’t like being rejected and I do like him.”

She was talking to herself now, not even looking at him and Ian hovered, wanting to advise but not wanting to intrude. Then she raised her head, as if remembering that he was still there. “I have not encouraged him, have I? I wouldn’t know how to behave to a man if I did want to encourage him, but perhaps without meaning to…”

“Sooni, calm down!” he cried, lightly grasping her arms as she was getting really anxious. “Nobody who knew you could think you were giving encouragement. He’s just hopeful, that’s all.”

She nodded. “Well, I must think what I should do. It is cruel to give a man hope where there is none. _And_ ,” she added with more spirit and prodded him in the chest, “it is cruel to laugh at a man for admiring me!”

He stepped back, as if she had actually pushed him with one poke of a single finger, holding up his hands in surrender. “That was not why I was laughing!”

“Wasn’t it?” She turned away and pulled her headscarf up, arranging it more securely over her head and shoulders. “I should go. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Alright. Bye, Sooni!” he called to her back, waving and smiling though she’d already moved off. Then he suddenly ran after her a few paces. “Sooni!”

She stopped and turned. “What is it?”

“You shouldn’t – you shouldn’t ever change your behaviour to make things easier for a man. It’s his problem to deal with, not yours.”

Sooni stared at him. “Yes, I know that.” She was not sure what his point was.

He smiled at her and shrugged. “I just wanted to make sure you knew.”

“Thank you, Ian!” she retorted and shot him a bemused glance before walking off again.

Ian seemed to deflate a few inches as she walked away. He kicked a clump of clay at his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets, feeling altogether dissatisfied with their conversation and unable to put his finger on why.


End file.
